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LONELY PLANET

You will find this pristine and excellent lodge on the ocean. Constructed entirely from fallen tropical hardwoods, the luxurious, spacious and very private cabins have shiny wood floors and beautifully finished fixtures. All of the units and the main house are powered by solar or hydroelectric power and the owners (rightly) take a great deal of pride in not using pesticides. Each cabin has a tiny moat around it that prevents ants from entering the room and bedroom areas are screened.

MOON HANDBOOKS

The Spanish- and German-run El Remanso Lodge atop Cabo Matapalo, is an ecofriendly enity running entirely on its own hydro-electric power. It offers seven spacious and airy cabins, with sponge washed concrete or hardwood floors and a gorgeous, simple aesthetic that includes soft-contoured concrete bed bases, batik covers, hammocks, and wall-to-wall louvered windows to three sides. It also has a two-storey group cabin for four people, plus a six-bedroom house with king-size beds and glazed concrete floors and handsome dark-stone tubs. It has a beautiful restaurant, a deck with a plunge pool, and a zipline. An open-air restaurant has stylish rattan lounge chairs.

FODOR’S

Find tranquility and understated elegance at this retreat in a forest brimming with birds and wildlife, 400 feet above a beach studded with tide pools. Luxurious cabinas have louvered, screened windows, large verandas, and showers behind curving Gaudi-like walls…excellent meals use local produce and are served on a shaded deck restaurant. The property reflects the owners' conservationist ideals.

FROMMER’S

A 78 hectare (195 acre) spread tucked away on the Pacific side of Cape Matapalo, the charming ecolodge has its own hiking trails, waterfalls, and a couple of small ziplines (guests can breakfast in the canopy on a tree platform), besider a bar/ restaurant, Jacuzzi, and yoga platform. The digs consist of three freestanding one-bedroom cabins, a two-storey bungalow, and a three bedroom house that sleeps up to a 10 ; all have screens, electricity, and great jungle and water views. If the place looks familiar, by the way, you might have caught it on MTV’s Trippin’, when Cameron Diaz, Jessica Alba, Kelly Slater and Kid Rock stayed here to promote saving the rainforests. It’s a bit of a walk down to the beach.

SLEEPING WITH THE TOUCANS

El Remanso is perfectly situated. The rooms, casas and rancho are perched on the cusp of a narrow ridge looking out to the Pacific, with deep canyons on either side. Clear streams with waterfalls tumble down these canyons, providing cool plunging pools and waterfall showers for you, and hydro-power and a drinkable water supply to El Remanso. Trails wander through the canyons, along the neighboring ridges, and down to the beach. An hour's morning walk takes you to the crashing Pacific surf, relaxing tide pools, the base of a 40-foot waterfall that removes the sea salt in no time, and back to the rancho in time for breakfast. El Remanso was built by Greenpeace activists Joel Stewart and Belén Momeñe after they sailed the Rainbow Warrior into the Golfo Dulce to help stop a massive clearcutting operation in the rainforest. It is now managed by their daughter Adriana and her partner Daniel, and is pervaded by a sense of self-reliance and ecological sensitivity. Unlike at some eco-lodges, however, one doesn't feel any expectations here, no subtle pressure to do or be any particular way. Everything is relaxed. The land and its inhabitants are allowed to speak for themselves. El Remanso offers six rooms and five casas. We recommend the "Cruz de Sur" room for its splendid view and open-air design, or the two-story, two-bedroom "Casa Vainilla," screened on the bottom and completely open on top.